XnXBXrXON  Of 
ightecn  pictures  ^  ^ 
y  the  Hmcncan  JMaater  of 
Landscape  painting,  the  late 

George  Innces, 


Rt  Rcnry  Riinbardf  8  0alUrte8 
232  Michigan  Hvc.,  Cbicaso,  lU. 
During  JilArch,  fiincttcn-cUxtn 


GEORGK  INNKSS,  N.A. 


rHIS  collection  of  pictures  by 
the  late  George  Inness,  which 
is  for  sale^  has  been  recently  acquired 
by  the  firm  of  Henry  Reinhardt  from 
the  galleries  of  a  well-known  New 
Tork  amateur.  It  is  a  gathering 
containing  many  masterpieces^  repre- 
sentative to  the  last  degree  of  the  art 
of  the  great  American  genius, 

March,  igii. 


THE  series  of  pictures  which  constitute  his  (Inness's)  record 
of  American  landscape,  and  which  form  the  crowning  pro- 
duction of  his  career,  are  part  of  our  national  chronicles,  as  well 
as  masterpieces  of  our  national  art.  In  his  studio  at  Montclair, 
among  the  Orange  Mountains,  he  is  writing  history  with  his 
brush  as  surely  as  a  Prescott  or  a  Bancroft  ever  wrote  it  with 
their  pens. — Catalogue  of  the  Thomas  B.  Clarke  Collection, 
Ph  Had  el  phi  a,  1 89 1 . 


ALL  his  pictures  are  broadly  painted,  deeply  felt  and  full- 
■  souledsymphonicsof  tone.  Thehistory  of  art  must  welcome 
him  as  one  of  the  most  varied  and  hnest  landscape  painters  of 
the  century. — Richard  Miilhcr^GcscliicJitcdcr  Malcrci  im  Xckh- 
zehnten  Jahrhundcrt. 


WWVW  tlie  time  comes — and  it  will  come  sooner  or  later — 
to  do  full  justice  to  George  Inncss  I  shall  be  glad  to  be 
one  of  the  first,  i)erhaps,  who  felt  an  artistic  emotion  in  contem- 
plating his  j)aintings  that  so  clearly  show  the  impression  ability 
of  a  thorough  artist,  a  lover  of  nature  and  an  e.xecutor  of  rare 
merit. — Benjamin  Constant ,  in  Xew  ]'ork  Times,  1895. 


[ 

Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

in  2015 

https://archive.org/details/exhibitionofeighOOinne 


BY  WAY  OF  PREFACE 


iHE  late  George  Inness  was  not  only  the  greatest  land- 


scape painter  that  America  has  produced,  but  he  was 


M  one  of  the  greatest  artists  of  the  modern  world,  fit  to 
rank  with  the  best  of  all  nations.  He  may  also  be  said  to  have 
come  under  the  head  of  that  much-abused  word,  genius.  He 
loved  his  nature  and  he  saturated  himself  with  it,  painting  best 
from  his  memory  of  the  scene,  in  the  quiet  of  his  studio,  where, 
taking  his  own  unconventional  way,  he  might  wander  into 
strange  paths  and  experiments,  in  the  end — and  this  is  the  secret 
of  the  great  artist — making  himself  part  and  parcel  of  the  per- 
formance, so  that  the  result  was  nature  seen  through  an  artistic 
temperament.  It  is  this  that  gives  the  lasting  value  to  his  work, 
that  distinguishes  it  from  the  mass  of  excellent  technical  per- 
formances on  all  sides.  Furthermore,  Inness  i)ossessed  a  fine 
sense  of  the  pictorial,  knew  to  a  nicety  the  value  of  balance,  of 
light  and  shade,  and  he  had  the  anatomy  of  nature  at  his  linger 
tips,  so  that  in  later  years  every  brush  sweep  was  full  of 
meaning.  This  was  the  result  of  a  long  and  serious  ap- 
])renticeship  before  nature,  the  making  of  hundreds,  even 
thousands  of  sketc  hes  where  every  branch  and  leaf  were  depicted 
with  extraordinary  fidelity  and  for  the  purpose  of  study.  The 
road  that  led  to  his  success  was  no  royal  one,  tlowcr  strewn.  He 
richly[descrved  all  that  came  to  him,  for  he  had  fought  the  battle 
and  had  been  in  the  forefront  of  the  fray  from  the  start. 

(ieorge  Inness,  of  course,  had  an  extraordinary  success 
toward  the  end  of  his  life,  but  in  truth  he  was  really  never  with- 
out a  serious  patronage  almost  from  the  beginning.  He  always 
sold  fairly  well  and  had  strong  admirers,  but  i)erhaps  it  was  not 
until  the  early  nineties  that  there  came  to  be  a  highly  serious 
demand  for  his  work.  Then  it  was  that  Thomas  B.  Clarke, 
Richard  Halstead  and  otlier  prominent  collec  tors,  seeing  the 
large  imi)()rt  of  his  elTorts,  began  to  buy  all  they  could  get  from 
Inness,  and  their  reputation  was  such  that  others  followed  in 
their  footsteps.  Finally,  in  1899,  at  the  sale  of  Mr.  Clarke's  col- 
lection, came  the  staggering  sensation  of  a  buyer  j)aying  $10,150 
for  Inness's  "Gray,  Lowcry  Day,"  and  the  ])ublic  sat  up  and 
took  notice,  for  never  before  had  such  a  figure  been  offered  for 
an  American  landscaj)e  at  auction.  That  s;ime  evening  another 
splendid  exami)le  fetched  S6,ioo !  It  was  his  "  Clouded  Sun." 
Ha])})ily  these  sums  were  not  the  result  of  hysteria,  ex(  itement  or 
the  nervousness  of  ill-advised  bidders.    George  Inness  had  been 


publicly  recognized  and  his  work  stood  with  the  best  of  all  ages. 
Since  that  time  collectors  have  vied  with  each  other  in  their 
efforts  to  secure  his  work,  and  while  naturally  the  man  is  better 
at  some  times  than  he  is  at  others — for  no  artist  can  be  always  at 
concert  pitch — the  general  excellence  of  Inness  is  universally 
admitted.    The  gods  had  called  him. 

It  is  a  unique  happening  that  the  firm  of  Henry  Reinhardt, 
of  Chicago  and  New  York,  has  been  able  to  secure  the  present 
collection  of  eighteen  pictures,  all  of  which  represent  the  man  at 
his  best,  while  some  of  them  are  among  his  undisputed  master- 
pieces— and  the  word  is  used  with  full  realization  of  its  signifi- 
cance. The  display  and  sale  of  the  pictures  is  a  chance  that 
this  generation  will  never  live  to  see  again.  That  this  exhibi- 
tion should  be  offered  to  the  general  public  is  the  citizen's  great 
opportunity,  for  the  show  is  a  liberal  education  in  itself,  while  in 
all  probability  there  will  never  again  be  such  an  occasion  for  the 
collector  to  augment  his  possessions  with  such  representative 
American  examples.  Happily,  too,  the  collector  is  beginning  to 
fully  appreciate  the  advantages  of  an  investment  in  the  best  of 
native  art.  It  is  no  longer  a  hazard  but  an  admitted  fact  that 
our  own  men  are  worthy  to  stand  with  the  best  in  the  world. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  recall  such  names  as  Homer  Martin, 
Alexander  H.  Wyant,  Winslow  Homer  and  others  to  note  the 
increase  in  values  which  in  a  decade  have  gone  up  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  Already  the  advance  in  prices  is  almost  unbelievable, 
and  the  men  being  dead  and  gone,  no  longer  capable  of  repro- 
duction, is  a  factor  that  adds  materially  to  the  values. 

This  collection,  which  the  firm  of  Henry  Reinhardt  is 
enabled  to  offer  for  inspection  and  sale,  is  singularly  representa- 
tive of  the  great  artist  under  many  varying  moods  and  manners, 
and  it  contains  pictures  now  famous  among  such  as  follow  art 
happenings  in  this  country.  Such  a  work,  for  example,  as 
"Threatening,"  enjoys  a  large  reputation  among  collectors, 
while  the  marvelously  beautiful  "Mill  Pond,"  shown  at  the 
Paris  Exposition  Universelle  of  1900,  created  a  sensation  and  in- 
stantly placed  Mr.  Inness  in  a  high  position  in  his  profession. 
But,  after  all,  it  is  a  matter  of  individual  choice  largely,  so  ad- 
mirable is  this  aggregation  of  works,  and  the  dispersal  of  the  col- 
lection is  a  distinct  art  event,  the  like  of  which  will,  it  is  safe  to 
predict,  never  occur  again  in  the  present  generation. 

Arthur  Hoeber. 


THE  REINHARDT  COLLECTION 


HE  collection  of  pictures  by  the  late  George  Inness, 


which  the  firm  of  Henry  Reinhardt  is  here  catalogu- 


ing,  is  most  com])rehensive,  and  especially  interesting. 
More  than  almost  any  other  modern  master  Inness  may  be 
traced  in  his  devclojjment  with  great  certainty  by  his  technical 
methods,  in  his  color  and  in  that  transition  which  progressed 
from  the  firm  and  orderly  objective  renderings  of  his  youth 
to  the  subtle,  suave  and  wholly  synthetic  works  of  the  last  year 
or  two,  and  again  there  are  those  of  us  still  alive  who  have  a 
personal  knowledge  of  most  of  these  particular  canvases,  and 
who  are  able  to  say  that  a  given  work  was  executed  at  a  particu- 
lar time  and  under  certain  conditions.  This  group  of  works  is 
quite  comi)letc,  running,  as  it  does,  from  very  early  examples, 
through  the  later  i)eriods,  to  the  heights  when  he  ])ainted  with 
fullest  power,  and  then  on  to  the  sweet  singing  which  is  ])ro- 
phetic  of  the  final  effort — even  as  a  wave  seen  far  away  is  urged 
onward,  with  ever-increasing  j^ower,  lifts  itself  into  fullest  crested 
height,  to  break  and  lose  itself  in  the  infinity  of  the  sands. 

The  i)oet,  the  scientist  and  the  technical  master  are  all 
here,  and  the  colorist.  What  more  can  be  said  to  make  one 
know  the  value  of  these  works  as  a  group,  except  it  be  to  exj)ress 
the  wish  that  lea|)s  into  being — has  lea|)ed  l)efore  when  other 
groups  have  been  disj)ersed — that  the  entire  collection  might  be 
placed  in  one  great  museum  where  the  American  j)eoi)le  could 
look  upon  them,  live  with  them,  love  them  and  come  to  know 
that  wc,  too,  have  j)roduced  a  world  master,  that  there  has  lived 
with  us,  worked  beside  us  the  i)eer  of  those  of  other  lands  whose 
names  long  since  became  familiar,  even  household  words,  and 
no  one  of  whom  combined  such  versatility  or  commanded  a 
virility  with  a  sweetness  so  great  as  this  man,  our  own  (ieorge 
Inness.  As  I  write  of  him — and  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to 
do  so  often — I  call  upon  my  memory  and  see  the  active,  ener- 
getic figure,  the  clean-cut  face  with  its  Hashing  eyes,  the  head 
to])i)ed  with  long,  even  shaggy  locks ;  I  see  the  swift  attack  u|)on 
the  canvas,  the  sjjread  of  great  waves  of  color  and  the  magical 
transformations  taking  place  under  the  touch  that  was  unlike 
that  of  any  painter  who  ever  lived.  His  was  a  i)rocess  of  evolu- 
tion in  ])aint  (I  speak  of  his  later  years),  not  the  creation  by  ])aint- 
ing  on  of  objects.  Somewhere  I  have  seen  it  said — i)crhaps  I 
said  it  myself — that  Whistler's  tlowers  seemed  to  bloom  from 
his  brush — and  so  with  Inness;  his  forms  seemed,  nay,  the  idea 


did  flow  from  the  brush  as  one  watched.  What  a  moment  ago 
was  but  a  spread  of  cadmium  now  became  broad  sunlight,  filling 
meadow  and  hillside,  or,  again,  the  strange  swabble — the  word  is 
a  good  one — of  black,  apparently  hopeless  in  its  confusion,  be- 
came in  an  incredibly  small  space  of  time  a  splendidly  rolling 
sky,  filled  with  a  wealth  of  billowy  form  and  tender  cloudlets — 
all  magic,  if  you  will,  but  ordered — and  his  very  own,  himself 
the  master  and  the  brush  and  pigments  merely  the  instruments 
with  which  he  created.  It  is  interesting  to  follow  some  of  these 
thoughts  in  the  particular  canvases  here  shown.  For  its  clear 
objectivity  and  directness  of  vision  let  us  take  the  No.  15, 
"Delaware  Valley"  (he  painted  many  pictures  with  this  title). 
How  direct  the  vision  and  how  sure  yet  simple  is  the  drawing, 
where  the  few  well-chosen  lines  give  all  the  compositional  flow 
that  is  necessary,  and  the  darker  trees,  stretching  out  from  the 
sloping,  near  hillside,  sustain  the  sense  of  horizontal  and  impose 
a  consciousness  of  perfect  balance.  Consider,  also,  this  hillside 
with  its  two  little  fruit  trees,  and  mark  the  unerring  accuracy 
with  which  he  has  placed  the  little  forms  of  haystack  and  house 
gables,  so  that  the  observer  passes  down  the  far  slope  of  the  hfll 
to  the  nestling  farm  in  the  valley — the  river  flows  safely  in  its 
bed  and  the  far  hills  reach  a  sky  line  at  once  elusive  and  alluring. 
This  is  art,  and  when  we  consider  that  this  is  an  early  picture, 
are  we  not  already  in  the  presence  of  a  master  ?  And  much  of 
this  sort  of  analysis,  with  equal  truth,  can  be  said  of  the  other 
early  works  here  shown. 

Let  us  progress  a  few  years  and  examine  the  No.  9,  "  In  the 
Valley,"  where  much  the  same  problem  presented  itself ;  that  is, 
the  vision  of  a  valley  seen  from  a  gentle  near-by  hillside.  The 
little  figure  is  there,  a  note  to  hold  by,  so  to  speak,  tying  shadow 
and  light  together ;  the  beautiful  placement  of  trees,  with  their 
graceful,  drooping  branches,  the  further  trees  partly  hiding  the 
houses,  luring  one  on  to  the  broad  valley  lying  still  under  the 
shadow  of  a  stormy  sky.  The  storm  clouds  stoop  low,  and  the 
upper  stratum  is  wet  with  the  wealth  of  rain  which  makes  the 
fertile  valleys  glad.  Some  day  some  one  is  going  to  write  of 
Inness's  truth  of  skies,  his  knowledge  of  cloud  forms,  his  perfect 
choice  of  idea  in  the  sky  represented  in  a  given  theme.  We 
shall  then  see  more  of  beauty  than  now  when  we  merely  say,  "a 
good  sky."  Usually  it  is  more  with  Inness — it  is  a  right  sky. 
The  thoughts  suggested  in  regard  to  "In  the  Vafley"  may  be 
employed  with  equal  interest  and  truth  in  the  picture  called 
"Twilight." 


The  two  richly  colored  canvases,  "Sunset  in  the  Valley" 
and  ''Landscape — Sunset,"  are  highly  important  works  and 
very  significant.  Turner  alone  would  have  presumed  to  use 
such  color,  and  in  them  the  problem  being  similar  and  the  inter- 
est exactly  in  the  same  place — the  splendor  of  the  sunset  sky — 
Inness  has  dared  to  reach  into  the  very  heart's  blood  of  the  pal- 
ette, and  balances  the  western  glory  with  a  wealth  of  broken 
tone  that  is  superb  and  masterly.  I  saw  him  working  upon 
these  pictures  and  know  precisely  what  his  puzzles  were — to  go 
down  into  the  little  valleys  and  up  the  far  slope,  keeping  at  all 
times  the  fulness  of  color  in  the  sky.  In  the  one  case  he  uses  a 
lovely  green  meadow,  through  which  moves  a  stream  vivid  with 
the  blood  of  the  sky;  and  in  the  other  a  still  pool  gives  the  op- 
])ort unity  to  catch  the  eye  with  the  promised  glory  of  the  sky. 
Of  all  other  objects  he  has  sacrificed  just  enough — synthecized 
— to  bring  out  fully  the  beauty  of  the  sunset. 

We  come  now  to  two  pictures  which  seem  to  stand  as  treas- 
ures— pictures  which  for  their  own  beauty  and  for  their  method 
technically  are  without  fault  or  hitch.  They  seem  to  have 
breathed  themselves  into  being  from  the  master's  brush  in  swift, 
subtle  flowings  of  color.  In  both  cases  they  are  almost  if  not 
altogether  in  transparent  color.  Drawn  and  painted  with  a  con- 
summate knowledge  of  theme  and  form,  of  value  and  mass,  and 
executed  with  a  love  that  gives  them  rare  im])ortance,  "The 
Autumn  Woods"  and  the  "Home  of  the  Heron,"  both  master- 
pieces— it  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  either  is  the  finer — they 
are  equally  rei)resentative  of  those  rare  j)eriods  in  the  great 
painter's  life  when  he  painted  without  strain  the  thing  he  felt, 
sj)eaking  to  us  in  the  language  of  line,  form  and  color  of  the 
beauty  his  own  soul  felt,  and  bequeathing  to  all  who  came  after 
him  his  love  of  the  woods,  the  grace  of  trees  and  the  charm  of 
solitude. 

If  we  have  doubted  this,  is  it  not  dispelled  by  the  sight 
of  such  a  form  as  the  noble  tree  in  "The  Slill  Pond"?  How 
gracefully  its  branches  dra])e  toward  the  earth  and  how  subtle 
and  dramatic  is  the  contrast  in  the  gnarled  and  broken  stumj)  or 
log  on  the  ground.  Old  tree,  old  tree,  you,  too,  shall  ])ut  off  all 
that  royal  show  of  crimson  robes  and  lie  stripped,  naked  and 
l)roken;  you,  too,  shall  be  but  a  log  u])on  a  damj)  shore  I  Ah, 
but  meanwhile  its  autumn  splendor  glorifies  the  ])ond  and  the 
dimly  seen  mill  lures  us  across  the  mirroring  water  to  other  trees 
and  other  colors,  noble  and  beautiful !  From  first  to  last  I  saw 
this  canvas  painted  and  know  how  it  was  valued  by  Mr.  Thomas 


B.  Clarke,  into  whose  hands  it  passed  at  once.  And  if  further 
example  be  needed  both  of  his  love  and  his  knowledge  of  tree 
forms,  shall  we  not  be  satisfied  by  the  great  canvas,  "  The  Florida 
Pines  "  ?  We  who  know  them  best  as  turpentine  pines,  or  long- 
leaf  pines,  know,  also,  the  extreme  difficulty  of  managing  the 
straight,  slender  trunks,  which  lift  themselves  to  great  heights 
ere  a  limb  leaves  the  stem.  How  skilfully  has  the  artist  massed 
them  and  how  perfectly  has  he  indicated  the  character  in  the 
slender  near-by  trees,  the  monotony  of  straight  lines  broken  by 
the  play  of  sun  and  shadow.  Such  canvases  are  too  precious  to 
be  estimated.  They  are  of  the  nation's  treasure,  to  be  loved  of 
the  people. 

We  have  also  but  to  look  at  the  great  canvas,  "After  a  Sum- 
mer Shower,  with  Rainbow,"  to  see  him  in  one  of  those  intense, 
dramatic  moods  which  draw  him  so  close  to  nature,  and  to  have 
revealed  again  his  power  over  the  strange,  weird  light  that  is  the 
accompaniment  of  the  drama  of  breaking  storm.  No  man  knew 
storm  better,  and  in  this  picture  that  knowledge  is  fully  ex- 
pressed. The  one  moonlight  is  superb.  It  was  originally  planned 
tobecome  a  part  of  the  Potter  Palmer  collection,  and  through  some 
change  of  plan  it  remained  in  the  painter's  studio,  to  be  dwelt 
upon,  changed  and  brought  to  its  final  perfection.  It  is  so  easy 
to  do  the  pretty,  sentimental  moonlight — the  thing  that  pleases. 
No  such  mood  was  upon  Inness  in  creating  this  picture.  It  was 
the  majesty  of  the  night,  its  mystery  and  its  color,  that  he 
essayed,  and  as  the  canvas  grew  day  by  day,  losing  under  his 
touch  all  needless  detail,  it  became  a  veritable  poem — a  moon- 
light sonata,  indeed,  and  in  my  view  one  of  his  great  successes. 

It  was  almost  his  last  work,  and  for  this  and  for  its  own 
beauty  is  very  precious ;  truly  its  name  if  not  its  title  should  be 
"  Inness's  Swan  Song."  Those  who  love  Inness  will  dwell  long 
with  these  pictures ;  those  who  would  know  him  may  learn  the 
lesson  quite  perfectly  among  them,  and  those  who  have  felt  in- 
clined to  harsher  criticism  may  well  be  silenced  in  their  pres- 
ence. 

Elliott  Daingerfield. 


1— AFTER  A  SUMMER  SHOWER 

(THE  RAINBOW) 

SELECTING  essentially  an  American  theme  Mr.  Inness 
chose  in  this  canvas  a  field  near  a  village.  A  ^^rouj)  of  trees 
to  the  left  are  of  rich,  summer  greens  and  to  the  right  a  bare  tree 
trunk  catches  the  glow  of  the  afternoon  sun  filtering  through  a 
stormy  sky,  out  of  which  emerges  a  rainbow.  It  is  evidently  a 
record  of  the  country  near  Montclair.  The  light  illuminates 
some  houses  to  the  right  and  the  distant  hills  are  tenderly  indi- 
cated, the  foreground  being  in  shadow.  Through  the  field  runs 
a  roadway  and  by  it  a  cow  grazes.  White  clouds  are  ])iled  uj)  in 
the  sky  to  the  left,  and  the  canvas  ])resents  a  charming  .scheme 
of  diffused  light  and  shade,  admirable  in  arrangement. 

The  Thomas  B.  Clarke  Collection,  1S99. 
Signed  at  the  right,  dated  1894. 
Height  32,  width  42  inches. 


2-MlLL  FOND 

AV'KRITABLE  j)oem  of  the  American  autumn,  we  have  in 
this  rarely  beautiful  canvas  a  brilliant  red  mai)le  to  tiie 
left,  standing  against  a  rich  sky  of  deep  blue  streaked  with  white 
clouds,  full  of  light.  In  the  center  of  the  composition  lies  a 
lake,  the  quiet  waters  of  which  retlect  the  shadows  of  the  trees 
beyond,  while  a  boatman  is  crossing  in  his  small  craft.  To  the 
right  the  felled  trunk  of  a  large  tree  lies  on  the  ground.  The 
work  was  shown  in  Paris,  at  the  Exposition  Universelle  of 
1900,  where  it  attracted  enormous  attention. 

Exposition  Universelle,  Paris,  1900. 
The  Thomas  B.  Clarke  Collection,  1899. 
Signed  at  the  right,  dated  1889. 
Height  3 7  J,  width  29  inches. 


3-THE  HOME  OF  THE  HERON 

(THE  SUN'S  LAST  REFLECTIONS) 

A STREAM  makes  its  wiiy  through  the  left  center  of  this 
picture,  reflecting  the  warm  light  of  the  declining  sun. 
Settled  on  its  surface  is  a  black,  heron,  its  dark  tones  intensifying 
the  brilliancy  of  the  twilight  glow.  Slender  trees  rise  uj)  on  all 
sides  and  their  somber  foliage  comes  strong  against  the  sky, 
which  is  of  luminous  warmth.  A  line  of  blue  distance  and  the 
silhouette  of  a  house  add  interest,  while  the  painting  has  been 
executed  with  engaging  simplicity  and  straightforwardness,  the 
artist  permeating  his  entire  canvas  with  light  and  air.  It  is  a 
true  impression  of  nature  which  Mr.  Inness  obviously  painted 
with  great  enthusiasm,  for  it  shows  little  traces  of  labor. 


Signed  at  the  right,  diiled  jSyj. 
Height  JO,  width  45  inches. 


4— PATH  THROUGH  THE  FLORIDA 
PINES 

TAI.L  i)iiK'  trcL's  in  this  ui)riglu  raiiviis  rise  up  againsl  a  sky 
of  gray,  l»luc  and  wliitc,  whik'  llic  li^lit  of  the  afternoon  sun 
illumines  their  trunks  \vith  a  warm  <;lo\v.  Under  these  stately 
trees  runs  a  i)ath  alonjj;  whic  li  wander  a  woman  and  c  liild.  The 
red  and  white  roofs  of  some  dwellings  are  seen  in  the  middle 
distance  and  in  the  ft)reground  a  wooden  foot  bridge  crosses  a 
gully,  by  the  side  of  which  is  some  luxuriant  vegetation  in  vivid 
greens,  with  here  and  there  a  note  of  red.  'I^vo  large  lairds 
hover  in  the  sky  to  the  upper  left. 

The  Thomas  B.  Clarke  Collection,  1899. 
Sigfinl  at  the  lejt,  dated  1894. 
Height  42.  u-idth  32  inches. 


5-TH  R KATENING 


A SPLENDIDLY  jKiintcd  sky,  full  of  ominous  clouds,  with 
a  l)urst  of  light  to  the  left,  dominates  this  dramatic  comjx)- 
sition  and,  with  its  dark  masses,  brings  out  the  peculiar  tender- 
ness of  a  line  of  hushes  and  trees  that  divide  the  i)i(  ture  through 
the  center.  Mr.  Inness  had  a  remarkable  talent  for  obtaining 
the  delicacy  of  these  green  tones,  which  are  here  full  of  retlec  ted 
light.  To  the  left  is  a  sheepfold  with  a  straw  roof,  and,  standing 
by  it,  a  farmer  gazes  at  the  weather.  It  is  a  simple,  rural  Ameri- 
(  an  scene,  eminently  (  harac  teristic ,  yet  full  of  dramatic  j)ower. 
A  tall  fa(  tory  chimney  in  the  middle  distance  emits  smoke  and 
to  the  right  a  mass  of  white  buildings  stand  luminously  out 
against  the  dark  sky.  The  work  is  symi)athetically  rendered, 
with  the  master's  engaging  directness,  and  the  fleeting  effect  is 
caught  in  an  impressive  manner. 

The  Thomas  K.  Clarke  Collection,  1899. 
Signed  at  the  lejt,  dated  1891. 
HeigtU  30,  undth  45  inches. 


6-AUTUMN  WOODS 


A HOUSE,  standing  lonely  at  the  edge  of  a  heavy  woodland, 
is  illumined  by  tlie  late  afternoon  sun  and  glows  brilliantly 
white.  Immediately  in  front  is  a  sj)arse  growth  of  trees,  under 
whic  h,  in  the  tangle,  a  cow  grazes.  It  is  the  fall  season  and  the 
foliage  lakes  on  a  ric  h  yellow  against  a  warm  sky.  The  work  is 
sui)erl)ly  felt  and  rendered  with  delightful  simplic  ity,  while  there 
is  admirable  drawing  to  all  the  tree  forms,  the  interlacing 
branches  making  a  handsome  pictorial  j)attcrn.  It  is  evident 
the  theme  ai)pealed  strongly  to  Mr.  Inness,  for  there  is  a  feeling 
of  the  work  being  done  copt  aniore,  and  there  is  suggcstivcness  in 
every  brush  stroke. 

Signed  at  the  right. 

Height  ay,  uidth  44 J  inches. 


7-LAN  DSCAPK-SUNSET 


Till]  (litViculty  of  sccurinf^  l)rilliiin(y  with  reds  has  always 
been  a  stumbling  block  with  the  painter.  In  this  remark- 
al)le  t  anvas  Mr.  Inness  achieved  the  seemingly  impossible,  get- 
ting a  luminosity  few  men  have  ever  obtained  with  j)igmcnt  on 
canvas,  for  the  j)icture  gives  the  impression  of  being  artificially 
lit.  A  grou|)  of  trees  to  the  left  rise  from  the  edge  of  a  i)ond  and 
near  by  is  a  marsh,  while  i)eaceful  meadows  stretch  back  to  the 
line  of  distance,  interspersed  here  and  there  with  tree  grt)Wth. 
Into  the  i)ond  is  retlected  the  brilliant  reds  of  the  sunset  sky, 
which  itself  fairly  exudes  light,  and  through  the  tangle  of  the 
undergrowth  one  may  see  glimpses  of  the  water.  It  is  all  a  line 
achievement,  full  of  poetry,  and  is  admirably  rendered  with  rare 
technical  distinction.  Above  all,  the  canvas  is  ai)|)ealing  in  its 
suggestiveness,  for  the  spectator  is  permitted  to  enter  with  the 
artist  into  the  scene  and  particii)ate,  as  it  were,  in  the  creation. 


Signed  at  the  right,  dated  i88y. 
Height  2  2i,  width  36  inches. 


8-AT  NIC  11  1 


Till!  scene  represents  a  I'leld  at  nii^lu  in  whic  li,  to  the  ri^^ht, 
near  a  liouse,  is  some  l)urnin}^  l)rush,  tlie  smoke  arising 
therefrom  mingling  with  the  dark  c  louds  of  the  sky.  Silhouet- 
ted against  the  sky  is  the  stately  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  back  of  this 
is  the  moon,  of  great  brilliancy.  .\  man's  figure  stands  watch- 
ing the  fire  and  lights  glow  in  the  habitation,  while  to  the  left  a 
mass  of  trees  come  im|)ressive  against  the  heavens.  I)esi)ite 
the  low  tones  of  this  midnight  effei  t  the  painter  gives  a  sense  of 
diffused  light  and  tlie  sentiment  of  the  mysterious  hour,  with  all 
its  j)()etry  and  suggest iveness. 

Signed  at  the  Irjt,  dated  i8yo. 
Height  23,  width  26}  inches. 


9-SUNLIT  VALLEY 


FILMY  clouds  arc  scattered  over  the  distant  l)luc  hills,  hall 
ohscurinf;  them,  while  (oming  direc  tly  toward  the  s|)ec- 
tator  is  a  sunlit  valley,  with  lines  of  trees  and  the  roofs  of  a  dis- 
tant village,  now  c  ati  hing  the  sunlight,  now  in  deej)  shadow, 
making  a  most  interesting  variety  of  agreeable  tones.  Some 
farm  hands  arc  in  the  fields  in  the  immediate  foreground  and  the 
contrast  of  warm  and  ( ool  tones  is  well  thought  out.  Fleeting 
effects  of  this  kind  a|)i)ealed  strongly  to  Inness  and  he  was  singu- 
larly able  in  recalling  them  when  in  the  (juiet  of  his  studio.  This 
work  is  eminently  ( harac  teristic  and  shows  the  man  in  one  of 
his  most  attnictive  moods. 

Signed  at  the  right,  dated  iSqj. 
Height  24,  width  36  inches. 


i 


<1 . 

r 

10-SUNSET  IN  THE  VALLEY 


SI'INDING  fortli  ;i  brilliant  orange  glow  the  sun  sets  over  the 
horizon  to  the  left  (  enter  of  this  eomi)()siti<)n,  and  from  a  hill 
in  the  foreground  the  spectator  looks  over  a  valley  half  in 
shadow.  Dark  clouds  in  the  sky  c  ati  h  a  red  glow  here  and 
there  from  the  sinking  sun,  and  scattered  about  through  the 
fields  are  trees.  The  my.stery  and  the  poetry  of  the  hour  are 
admirably  e.\i)ressed,  and  the  work  po.s.sesscs  much  subtlety. 
Particularly  successful  has  the  painter  been  in  obtaining 
luminosity. 

77/f  Thomns  fi.  Clarke  Collection,  1899. 
Signeil  al  the  lejl,  dated  1890. 
Height  22 J,  width  36  inches. 


11-MOON  RISK 


AGRKAT  red  moon,  enormously  brilliant,  dominates  the 
center  of  this  upright  canvas  and  is  set  in  a  sky  of  warm 
tones.  To  the  left  is  a  young  tree  rising  from  a  field  and  to  the 
right  a  clumj)  of  trees  is  massed  in  a  vague,  suggestive  way 
against  the  sky.  In  tlie  left  c  enter  is  a  field  hand.  Very  poetic 
is  the  conception  and  full  of  cliarm,  the  suggestive  landscape, 
bathed  as  it  is  in  a  mellow,  mysterious  light,  essentially  of  the 
hour.  A  picture  full  of  the  personality  of  the  artist  and  indica- 
tive of  one  of  his  many  moods. 

Signed  at  the  right,  imdalcd. 
Height  30,  width  25  inches. 


12— NEAR  MONTCLAIR,  N.  J. 


ONE  of  the  most  joyous  of  the  Inness  canvases,  this  excjuisile 
little  landscape  is  full  of  the  tender  colors  of  autumn  and 
shows  a  i)()ol  of  water  in  the  forej^round,  with,  back  of  it,  an 
opening  through  the  trees  that  discloses  distant  fields  and  hal)i- 
tations.  To  the  right  the  gable  of  a  house  catches  tlie  glint  of 
the  warm  light  which  illumines  the  tree  tops  as  well,  in  their  fall 
t oloring  of  reds  and  yellows,  while  the  sky  is  tenderly  ex|)ressed 
in  warm  violets,  blue  and  orange  tones.  The  work  is  a  veritable 
little  i)()em  of  the  waning  year,  a  glimpse  of  the  "Summer  of 
Saint  Martin"  that  this  artist  loved  so  dearly  to  i)Ut  on  canvas, 
and  it  must  l)e  ranked  among  his  highly  successful  performances. 

Sigtud  at  the  lejl,  undated. 
Height  IS,  width  26  inches. 


13— LATE  AFTERNOON 


'HROUGII  an  ()i)t'nin<^  in  the  woodland  is  seen  a  mass  of 


J-  (lark,  rich  tones  of  the  forest,  all  under  a  sky  running  from 
deep  i)urj)les  to  warm  whites,  whic  h  l)ring  out  the  vivid  greens 
uf  the  foreground.  The  liglit  trunksof  tlie  near-by  trees  are  thus 
accentuated,  arc  admiral)ly  drawn  and  constructed,  and  the  ])ic- 
ture  is  a  gem  in  a  color  way,  painted  with  contagious  enthusiasm 
into  which  the  spectator  enters  in  si)ite  of  himself. 

Signed  at  the  right,  undated. 
Height  IS,  "width  12  inches. 


14-EVENING  LANDSCAPE 


BROAD  meadow  hinds,  caught  by  the  orange  glow  of  the 
afternoon  sun,  stretch  down  to  the  sea  and  are  dotted  here 
and  there  hy  lines  of  tree  forms.  The  immediate  foreground 
shows  a  clump  of  great  trees  shading  a  house,  all  being  in  deep 
shadow.  A  figure  threads  its  way  through  these  fields,  and  over 
all  is  a  fine,  dignified  sky,  with  streaks  of  cool  l)lue,  warm  i  louds 
going  into  rich  darks.  The  branches  of  the  trees  are  illumin- 
ated by  the  setting  sun  and  some  sheep  are  scattered  about, 
grazing.  Unusually  successful  in  his  rendering  of  greens,  Mr. 
Inness  in  this  work  obtained  a  high  achievement,  composing 
his  canvas  with  rare  discretion. 

Signed  at  the  right,  dated  i8yo. 
Height  20,  width  30  inches. 


15-D  EL  AWARE  VALLEY 


FRC)>T  an  cminenre  in  the  foreground, a  field  of  yellow,  there 
stretc  lies  out  a  j^reat  expanse  of  smiling,  fertile  country, 
through  which  winds  a  stream.  Houses  are  dotted  here  and 
there  in  the  landscai)e  and  there  is  a  sky  of  brilliant  turcjuoise, 
with  many  dark  clouds  all  full  of  atmosphere.  The  light  and 
shade  are  interestingly  arranged,  the  whole  heing  a  genuine  im- 
pression of  an  ai)i)ealing  l)it  of  nature. 

Signed  at  the  It-jt,  undaird. 
Height      width  24  inches. 


16-T\\  I  I-lCill  1    IN    l  l  ALV 


LA'I'  marslu's  strcli  liin^  out  to  the  sea  catc  li  tlic  glow  of  the 


^  late  afternoon.  The  foreground  is  a  dark  strip  of  green 
from  which  some  dead  tree  trunks  are  «>utlined  against  a  ric  h 
Ijlue  sky,  l)r()ken  l)y  clouds  of  white.  The  distanc  e  is  tender 
and  elTective  and,  sc  attered  over  the  datlands,  are  some  habita- 
tions, a  house  and  a  fence  l)eing  in  the  immediate  foreground. 
The  smoke  of  a  vessel  on  tlie  sea  (omes  against  the  sky,  tiie  ( anvas 
having  fine  (juaiities  of  light  antl  atmosphere  . 

Signed  at  right,  dated  1S74. 
Height  rf)i.  'u-idUi  2, si  imhes. 


17-SUMMER  IN  THE  CATSKILl.S 


OUTLINED  iigainsl  a  midsummer  sky  a  tall,  stately  hill 
lakes  on  the  l)lue  of  distance,  while,  at  its  hase,  smiling' 
meadows,  rich  with  tree  j^rowth.  stret*  h  away  under  sunlight 
and  shadow.  Cattle  graze  in  the  foreground  and  tlie  hanks  of  a 
stream  are  seen  in  the  tenter  of  the  i ompositiim,  where  stands 
an  unpretentious  house.  A  road  winds  into  the  picture,  whit  h 
is  full  of  i)astoral  simplicity  antl  trantjuil  i  harm.  It  is  an  early 
e.\ami)le  l)y  the  master  of  an  .\merican  theme  antl  is  worthily 
rei)resentative  of  that  epoch  in  his  career.  Here  as  el.sewhere 
Mr.  Inness  tlemonstrated  his  absolute  t ontrol  t>f  greens,  whit  h 
are  expre.ssed  with  sj)arkle  and  luminosity. 

Thf  WHliatn  T.  E\'*ins  i'oUt<tion,  lyoo. 
Sisnai  nl  the  lejt,  datrd  1S67. 
Height  30,  width  jo  inches. 


18-POMI'TON  RI\KR 


FLOWING  directly  tlirou^'h  the  center  of  the  jtiiture  is  a 
stream,  hordered  on  either  side  l)y  a  luxuriant  growtli  of 
tree  forms  that  are  retlet  ted  in  the  water.  l  arther  l)ac  k  is  an 
old  wooden,  covered  bridge  c  rossinj^  the  river,  and  aimve  is  a 
sky  with  many  clouds,  catching  the  afternoon  ligiit.  Tlie  work 
is  a  fresh  imi)ressi()n  of  the  scene  with  no  little  vigor. 

Signed  at  the  right  u  ith  initials  "C  /." 
Dated  1877. 

Height  10,  undth  14  inches. 


